Cleaning with a 3 1/2-year-old

There are so many things a 3 1/2-year-old can do. Picking up the toys off the floor in the playroom isn't one of them. I mean, physically, yes, a child of this age can pick up the toys, but I have determined that this task is completely impossible unless the mother of this child is standing in the room giving constant approval and pointing to and naming specific items that need to be picked up. A statement such as, "Pick up everything you see on the floor," means absolutely nothing. This only leads the child to pick up one thing and then ask, "Now how does it look?" And it really isn't that the child wants to be difficult. In fact the very opposite is true. The child really does want to help and do a good job. So, while the mother of this child may want to pull her hair out and just do it herself, it really is valuable for the child to do the task and for the mother just to be thankful that the floor in the playroom may eventually have fewer toys on it than when the task was started.